ever took any part in the Paschal controversy at all. The only ground we have for attributing these fragments to him is the Preface to the Paschal Chronicle of Alexandria, written by an unknown author of the seventh century, some five hundred years after the time of Apollinaris, whose testimony has rightly been described as "worth almost nothing."(1) Most certainly many passages preserved by him are inauthentic, and generally allowed to be so.(2) The two fragments have by some been conjecturally ascribed to Pierius of Alexandria,(3) a writer of the third century, who composed a work on Easter, but there is no evidence on the point In any case, there is such exceedingly slight reason for attributing these fragments to Claudius Apollinaris, and so many strong grounds for believing that he cannot have written them, that they have no material value as evidence for the antiquity of the Gospels. 3. We know little or nothing of Athenagoras. He is not mentioned by Eusebius, and our only information regarding him is derived from a fragment of Philip Sidetes, a writer of the fifth century, first published by 2 Dr. Donaldson rightly calls a fragment in the Chronicle ascribed to Melito, "unquestionably spurious." Hist. Chr. Lit. and Doctr., iii. p. 231. {189} Dodwell.(1) Philip states that he was the first leader of the school of Alexandria during the time of Hadrian and Antoninus, to the latter of whom he addressed his Apology, and he further says that Clement of Alexandria was his disciple, and that Pantsenus was the disciple of Clement. Part of this statement we know to be erroneous, and the Christian History of Philip, from which the fragment is taken, is very slightingly spoken of both by Socrates(2) and Photius.(3) No reliance can be placed upon this information.(4) The only works ascribed to Athenagoras are an Apology--called an Embassy, [------]--bearing the inscription: "The Embassy of Athenagoras the Athenian, a philosopher and a Christian, concerning Christians, to the Emperors Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and Lucius Aurelius Commodus, Armeniaci Sarmatici and, above all, philosophers"; and further, a Treatise: "On the Resurrection of the Dead," A quotation from the Apology by Methodius in his work on the Resurrection of the Body, is preserved by Epiphanius(5) and Photius,(6) and this, the mention by Philip Sidetes, and the inscription by an unknown hand, just quoted, are all the evidence we possess regarding the Apology. We have no evidence at all regarding the treatise on the Resurrection, beyond the inscription. The authenticity of neither, therefore, stands on very sure grounds.(7) The address of the Apology and internal evidence furnished by it, into which we need not go, show that it could not {190} have been written before a.d. 176--177, the date assigned to it by most critics,(1) although there are many reasons for dating it some years later.